I have noticed that my wins have dramatically dropped off in the last few years. I thought it was due to me using a private mail box at one of those shipping and mail box stores, so i switched to my physical address. This did not change anything still no wins not even those little ones you get, just those instants. I also had been using disposable email addresses from yahoo throughout the time i was winning stuff and after I stopped winning, so I changed that to a normal email address. This still had no effect. Which brings me to the conclusion that most sweepstakes sites may be using what is included in each click of the mouse on any site. When you click on a link on any webpage the website that it links to gets certain information from that previous website. The main information is the website address that the link was on. All the sweepstakes people need to do is compare these "referrer" addresses to ones that are associated with sweepstakes sites like OLS and simply disqualify those that are on the list.

Now I have been using the OLS site for many many years and do not have anything against it or any other sweeps site. I think this referrer info needs to be dealt with though. I am not sure what could be done, but I am eliminating that problem for me. There are a few ways that this referrer info can be overcome. One way is to use referrer changers. These change the referrer information before it is sent to the other website. These can be add ons to browsers or standalone programs. Another way is to save the pages of the myseeps as webpage complete files and open them from your computer and enter that way. You can even use the shazam button. This way does not show any referrer and makes it just like clicking a bookmark. I dont know how brent would feel about this option. Another way would be to copy the address directly from the sweepstakes link and manually paste it into a new browser window. This however would make it take much longer to do your sweeps. In Firefox under the tools tab there is "Page Info" this shows some basic information on the webpage your are currently on and includes a referrer if there was one. You can check out the referrer info on each page your on to see what I mean. I dont use too many other browsers but many web tools add ons may have this info also.

I have worked with computers my whole life and have a degree in computer science, so I understand what tools can be used on websites and computers. Any website can get information of what browsers, add ons, operating system, and much more information about your computer and programs. Any sweepstakes website can use multiple things to disqualify entrants. What I am talking about the referrer info is just one of them. So this may or may not be why I am not winning even small things. Use your best judgment to make your own decisions.

awssm

May 31st, 2017 1:42pm

What you say is something to think about but IMO it is not the complete picture. I rarely enter directly from OLS but still find wins are few and far between.

redfantum

May 31st, 2017 2:35pm

I use shazam and often block referrer as well and I'm also not winning squat. Sometimes you just can't win.

michaele

May 31st, 2017 4:16pm

Seems unlikely. Think of the possible exposure to negative PR or even legal problems for the site and/or sponsors who discriminated against OLS in such a manner. It would only take one disgruntled employee or ex-employee to leak that practice. Surely they would at least have to put something in the rules to cover their backsides.

QBookie

May 31st, 2017 4:52pm

Big Companies Don't Care

A long time ago, probably before 2008, members were switching browsers to avoid the referrer showing. There was a post from someone who had worked for a large company that administers sweepstakes, maybe EPRIZE. His view was that big companies are after name recognition, company loyalty. etc. and they don't care where they find it. The more traffic they got, the happier they were. Which is why so many big companies have daily entry sweeps. Like, I will be buying Nathan's Hot Dogs. It's a great daily with a long duration. I think you should ask Brent what he thinks and if times have changed. :binky::binky::binky:

dopey

May 31st, 2017 5:44pm

There was a sweep that was giving away a tablet a day, someone on Facebook implied it was probably rigged because they never won. I checked to see how many likes the company had and there were 6 million, if only 1% of this people entered through the the Facebook link, That would be 60,000 entries. Maybe we're not winning as much as we used to because a zillion more people are entering now.

louiseb130

May 31st, 2017 5:49pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by dopey
(Post 11445596)

There was a sweep that was giving away a tablet a day, someone on Facebook implied it was probably rigged because they never won. I checked to see how many likes the company had and there were 6 million, if only 1% of this people entered through the the Facebook link, That would be 60,000 entries. Maybe we're not winning as much as we used to because a zillion more people are entering now.

This.

QBookie

May 31st, 2017 5:57pm

Very Good Point

Quote:

Originally Posted by dopey
(Post 11445596)

There was a sweep that was giving away a tablet a day, someone on Facebook implied it was probably rigged because they never won. I checked to see how many likes the company had and there were 6 million, if only 1% of this people entered through the the Facebook link, That would be 60,000 entries. Maybe we're not winning as much as we used to because a zillion more people are entering now.

I do think that Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are increasing the number of entries as they make entering easily accessible. The reverse might also be true. Those on Social Media may be more accessible to the Sponsors. Don't most of the Sponsors want the privacy turned off to enter?

elittle2004

May 31st, 2017 6:38pm

Eprize is basically impossible to win from anymore...I honestly believe this site and/or its members are being blacklisted. I enter my sweeps with the Opera browser and some sweeps aren't compatible with some sweeps, so I then use Firefox instead. I think there is something fishy going on because I used to win one prize per week (or more) from Eprize in 2007, 2008 and most of 2009...now I am lucky if I win one prize per year from them or from any other company. All of my bigger wins in the past few years have came from local tv and radio stations. I don't block referrer....but maybe I should...who knows if it will even make a difference or not. Still to this very date, I have yet to win a HOF prize since I started on OLS, if a sweepstakes with a daily entry last months, the odds of anyone winning from OLS is basically nothing....what happened to all of the sweeps? At one time OLS had over 8,000 active sweeps. There is sweepstakes out there, people just need to submit them to OLS...I myself submitted several to OLS in the past week or so.

elittle2004

May 31st, 2017 6:43pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by LewDog64
(Post 11445452)

I have noticed that my wins have dramatically dropped off in the last few years. I thought it was due to me using a private mail box at one of those shipping and mail box stores, so i switched to my physical address. This did not change anything still no wins not even those little ones you get, just those instants. I also had been using disposable email addresses from yahoo throughout the time i was winning stuff and after I stopped winning, so I changed that to a normal email address. This still had no effect. Which brings me to the conclusion that most sweepstakes sites may be using what is included in each click of the mouse on any site. When you click on a link on any webpage the website that it links to gets certain information from that previous website. The main information is the website address that the link was on. All the sweepstakes people need to do is compare these "referrer" addresses to ones that are associated with sweepstakes sites like OLS and simply disqualify those that are on the list.

Now I have been using the OLS site for many many years and do not have anything against it or any other sweeps site. I think this referrer info needs to be dealt with though. I am not sure what could be done, but I am eliminating that problem for me. There are a few ways that this referrer info can be overcome. One way is to use referrer changers. These change the referrer information before it is sent to the other website. These can be add ons to browsers or standalone programs. Another way is to save the pages of the myseeps as webpage complete files and open them from your computer and enter that way. You can even use the shazam button. This way does not show any referrer and makes it just like clicking a bookmark. I dont know how brent would feel about this option. Another way would be to copy the address directly from the sweepstakes link and manually paste it into a new browser window. This however would make it take much longer to do your sweeps. In Firefox under the tools tab there is "Page Info" this shows some basic information on the webpage your are currently on and includes a referrer if there was one. You can check out the referrer info on each page your on to see what I mean. I dont use too many other browsers but many web tools add ons may have this info also.

I have worked with computers my whole life and have a degree in computer science, so I understand what tools can be used on websites and computers. Any website can get information of what browsers, add ons, operating system, and much more information about your computer and programs. Any sweepstakes website can use multiple things to disqualify entrants. What I am talking about the referrer info is just one of them. So this may or may not be why I am not winning even small things. Use your best judgment to make your own decisions.

I wonder if a AdBlocker dq's people also? I wonder if sponsors can even tell? I have been on a few sites and a banner will pop up telling me to turn off my adblocker. Maybe using RoboForm or a form filler dq's everyone also...perhaps that is why fewer of us win anymore...that would likely explain it since most users of OLS use RoboForm or some other autofill variant (I do).

bomar97

May 31st, 2017 8:05pm

I wish I knew how to get back to winning... it's been so boring this year - meaning lack of winning emails or pkgs. I enter many sweeps through bookmarks so it's not showing that they come from here...

yadgirl

May 31st, 2017 9:36pm

I never click links from sweepstakes sites, but wins are down. There are more sweeps with just one prize, and most of the time, I'm not interested.

lbdavis232

May 31st, 2017 9:57pm

How do you block the referer?

alansax

May 31st, 2017 10:12pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by elittle2004
(Post 11445616)

I wonder if a AdBlocker dq's people also? I wonder if sponsors can even tell? I have been on a few sites and a banner will pop up telling me to turn off my adblocker. Maybe using RoboForm or a form filler dq's everyone also...perhaps that is why fewer of us win anymore...that would likely explain it since most users of OLS use RoboForm or some other autofill variant (I do).

I use Google Chrome with AdBlocker and I win often. So don't think Adblocker is a problem. I use Google Chrome's autofill function. I use a stand alone PC program to track my sweepstakes entries and don't use MySweeps because I get my sweepstakes from so many different sources: OLS, Facebook, BirdIQ, Google searches, other sweepstakes directory sites, etc.

My win ratio is about 1 win per 3,000 entries,

lbdavis232

May 31st, 2017 10:37pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by alansax
(Post 11445672)

I use Google Chrome with AdBlocker and I win often. So don't think Adblocker is a problem. I use Google Chrome's autofill function. I use a stand alone PC program to track my sweepstakes entries and don't use MySweeps because I get my sweepstakes from so many different sources: OLS, Facebook, BirdIQ, Google searches, other sweepstakes directory sites, etc.